Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Or, could we all use some room for improvement? Barbara Moses, one of Canada's great career gurus recently ran two back to back columns in the Globe and Mail. The first, running on Oct. 16th covered Neworking Faux Pas and this last week on Oct. 26th she covered How to be the Consummate Connector. And, she is absolutely right! In our career culture we put very little thought into the connections we make. We rush to set up a meeting and then don't prepare enough to make it meaningful for both parties. Finally, we forget the follow up.

One of my favourite writers on this topic is Keith Ferrazzi, author of Never Eat Alone and columnist for Fast Company. He takes networking to a level of science that we should all appreciate. The best networkers out there get out what they put in. It takes effort!

So, what do you think? Are women better networkers than men? And, what makes them different?

Friday, October 26, 2007

We hope that the Walk the Talk message gets through to employers. And, sometimes it does! Chris Carder, President and CEO of Thin Data attended our Toronto Walk the Talk Best Practices Forum on Oct. 23rd and was so inspired with what he learned that he is implementing new best practices and employment standards in his workplace. Chris recently blogged about this on the Canadian Marketing Association site.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

So, what does Walking the Talk mean and why is it important to employees? We often hear about employee engagement, productivity, retention and other standard human resource vernacular but are we measuring what is really important to employees?

With the changing employment landscape, employees are now defining their careers differently and with that comes major challenges for employers looking to attract and retain talent and staff up where shortages are now becoming more obvious as the boomer hits retirement age. Employees have more employment options then ever before and are no longer seeking the security of a full time, conventional employee role. With employees in the driver’s seat, employee retention and attraction are at the top of Employer lists of challenges to address into 2010.

So what does it take to keep employees in the game? Market Yourself Smarter conducted its second annual Walk the Talk Survey, organically polling employees across Canada on whether they feel their Employer walks the talk.

Last year’s 2006 survey ranked the Top 10 Eastern and Western Canadian Employers who Walk the Talk and unveiled that employees defined Walking the Talk as being honourable, authentic, transparent, supportive and open to new ideas (2006 award recipients . This year’s employee definition was extended to include listening and respect as key attributes.

The process:

-Employees anonymously completed a five minute online survey – www.marketyourselfsmarter.com-Employees also had the option nominate their employer directly through an online nomination form-To qualify for an award, employers required a minimum of 10 completed employee surveys, needed to be headquartered in Canada and have a minimum of 50 full time employees-Survey question format included a combination of numeric ranking and qualitative, text-based answers-Survey responses were 51 % positive, 37 % negative and 12 % neutral

The 2007 Walk the Talk survey will award three companies in Eastern and Western Canada that where voted in by their employees based on a common Walk the Talk theme. These six companies have exhibited excellence in one or more Walk the Talk areas and will be recognized with these awards to be released and announced at the upcoming Walk the Talk Employee Perspective Forum on Oct. 18th in Toronto and Nov. 1st in Vancouver. Details available at www.marketyourselfsmarter.com . The 2007 Walk the Talk report will be released later in November with highlights available for download at www.marketyourselfsmarter.com .

Monday, October 01, 2007

Malcolm Gladwell chimes in with his perspectives in this morning's Globe sharing his take on the new workplace and what a career will look like in the future. I would be curious to ask him a few more questions with respect to what employers need to do today to embed loyalty into their culture and create a competitive employment environment.